Bungie is now quadruple-dipping with Season Passes, loot boxes (via Engrams), direct cosmetic purchases and a Battle Pass. The Battle Pass in particular is annoying by adding an additional layer of time-consuming grind to a game that already requires a lot of grind. The scummiest part of the whole system, though, is that Bungie has built the Eververse store straight into the Director menu. Previously, monetization could be ignored entirely because it was secluded to the Eververse Store at the Tower. Now, Bungie has made sure that it follows players everywhere they go. It's sad to see such regression after Forsaken made Destiny 2's monetization feel fairer to players.

You don't even need to own Shadowkeep to enjoy a lot of the expansion's content. The opening mission, the Moon patrol space, the new two new Strikes and the three Crucible maps are available as part of Destiny 2: New Light, the free-to-play version of the game. While the Raid and campaign are sectioned off, there's a lot you can do without owning Shadowkeep (the Seasonal Activities require you own the Season Pass).

Destiny 2’s fourth expansion, Shadowkeep, and destiny2fans.com its most recent seasons have kept the positive momentum going. With the release of Shadowkeep, Guardians got to return to The Moon to take on nightmarish versions of many defeated foes. The main content additions also included two new strikes, one new Crucible map, two new-ish Crucible Maps and the "Garden of Salvation" raid. Shadowkeep also brought with it the reorganization of the Crucible and the launch of "Armor 2.0."

While this approach to franchise expansion is a novel move for Halo and its developers at 343 Industries, it is not new for the industry. In fact, Bungie, the original creators of Halo, have moved towards this platform expansion model for Destiny 2 . In June, Bungie announced that Destiny 2 , already finishing up its third year since launch, still had at least three more years of new expansions on the

Probably the biggest albatross hanging over the entire expansion, however, is the lack of anything new. Despite some additional areas to explore and a fresh coat of paint, this is a map players already paid $60 to explore back in 2014. Nightmares are just reskinned versions of enemies we've already fought and they don't behave any differently. Two of the three new Crucible maps are remasters of old maps. The new Nightmare activities are against bosses that players have already fought hundreds of times. The new Strikes and Raid are excellent additions, but you don't even need to own Shadowkeep to play the Strikes. For $34.99, players should expect more and Bungie should have provided plenty of new content rather than rehashing older material.

That mentality extends to the way Bungie is handling post-launch content. Season of the Undying sees waves of Vex arriving via a storm to take over the Moon. Watching them arrive is breathtaking, and the firefights that ensue are hectic and enjoyable. Then there's the new Vex Offensive activity, which allows players to travel back to the Black Garden to take on the Vex. It's a surprisingly robust seasonal activity and it'll be interesting to see what lasting impact the Vex have on the Moon once the Season is over.

Last week in Destiny 2 May 12th- May 19th, was the final week for Iron Banner this season. With it, goes the chances of obtaining the ritual weapon through the seasonal quest "Cast in Iron". This season, Iron banner offered a ritual weapon for the first time ever, while also being the only playlist to award players with a ritual weapon at all. The legendary bow Point of the Stag has excellent PvP potential as a precision frame with a fast draw time. Archers tempo is an available perk on the weapon, which will provide players with faster draw speeds in-between every precision shot. Until further details, the weapon is currently only available in Season 10 and has not been revealed to be a recurring weapon for the upcoming Season 11. Completing Iron Banner bounties will reward players with pinnacle gear that can raise light levels quickly and other items, so make sure to have turned those in. The Iron Remembrance armor set, Cast Iron Emblem, and Iron Precious shader are the other collectib

The prime example that comes to mind is The Black Armory from the "Season of the Forge." This was something built up as offering players a special kind of new weapon to chase via a new kind of public event. Both of these claims were true, but unfortunately the forge events wound up being overly grindy (and poorly balanced at first), and the weapons largely weren’t worth the effort. Successive seasons have had similar struggles, but not to the same degree and were largely successful.

Cloudstrike is like a smaller Thunderlord in the Special Weapon slot. It has a lot of the same utility, but with the trade-off of being a Sniper Rifle as opposed to a Machine Gun. What this translates to is a Sniper that functions in both single-target sustained damage and ad-clear on lower damage thanks to its lightning stri